Want to know part of the reason for this "sad" occurrence? Ever see some buck-toothed idiot come on TS.com and post some variation of the following?

"Hey, I saw Dick's has a special on those Baki-Bika-Baikla (?sp.) guns...anybody have one and no if its any good? I figure for hunting, you can't go wrong for $299, rite? An how about those Remington 105Ti / 109Ki / 401k / (?sp.) or whatever its called? Are those good for shooting a coupple rounds of trap?"

If folks keep on buying more of Remington's foreign crap, maybe we can be treated to more headlines like these.

I believe Marlin was bought by Remington, as was H&R. Winchester and Colt are already gone in all but name. All of this was corporate manipulations, much like Hudson, Kaiser and more recently Chrysler. I get a kick out of everytime a corporate raider smashes a company, everytime greedy mangagement sucks a company dry, every time the EPA demands what is not possible and shuts down a company, all anyone can think to blame is "unions". I owned a union data com business and had 70 journeymen tradesmen on payroll. Top pay for top work. Because I, and only because I, was competent, we were very efficient and only did top quality work, anyone who didn't like that was sent back to the hall. When the unions are gone, who are you going to blame for horrible business practices?

I really doubt that Marlin Firearms is "Going out of business". They might be moving to a new locale or something but I seriously don't think they are done in the firearms business. Time will tell..............Uncle Sam, Pa.

Hershey Foods did not move out of PA. If they moved, it would probably be to Canada to join most of the rest of the American Candy industry that moved to Canada where they can buy sugar at the world market price instead of the inflated the US prices imposed on us by Congress.

I know King Leo pepermint is made in Mexico as well as Brachs candy corn.. I emailed both companys and told them our faimly would never knowlingly buy food from Mexico..We even threw out a whole can of Lays chips last week when I saw it was from Mexico..

They are relocating the operation to Remingtons North Carolina manufacturing facility..how many of the current employees following to keep their jobs I cant say...as a lover of Marlins..I just hope the quality doesn't suffer

Slowly all is becoming one. Companies are merging, being bought out, then dissolved, as per Maytag. When I was a youngster, my grandma would tell us, "the Good Book says, the end of the world is near when all becomes one". Never knew what that mean't, but I am beginning to see the picture.

Remington had (has?) serious union problems at Ilion. Do they have a union at their NC manufacturing site?

But before we put too much blame on the Marlin union, consider Marlin is making half the rifles they were making just a few years ago. Consider also the impact Shotgun Only regulations have had on the deer rifle market. Is there rifle hunting for deer in Connecticut?

That's to bad. I just went Boar hunting with a 35 cal. Lever action that my uncle
gave me when I was a kid that he had bought in 1953. The gun still shoots great.
Got me a 250lb. Russian Boar. They're great gun's and they have a great Marlin owners web site too.
Rick12

Guys. I had a very serious talk with the Remington representative of Marlin at the SHOT Show in Jan. We talked for 45 minutes, and I informed him of several quality issues I had seen on new Marlin rifles at dealers. All of which were caused by simple neglect!!!

I'm talking barrels which were 5 degress out of time with the receivers which resulted in the sights being crooked. Like you can see it from 10 feet away crooked!!! A point which could only have been missed by at least 3 separate people. The guy who installed the barrel, the Quality Control guy who inspected the gun and, the guy who test fired it. This was only one topic, and we talked about several similar ones in the 45 minutes, and all of the others concerning quality problems were also directly related to people that didn't give a shit!! and He acknoledged this very point.

This comes down to people who don't give a shit! Pure and simple!!! He told me that they were updating processes, streamlining production, and retooling the lever action lines, (the only guns that matter). There was also talk of a Custom Shop, which would be producing some guns to order, and embelishing some as well.

The Freedom Group has no intention of closing Marlin down. They just paid $42 million for it? And Marlin Lever action Rifles are selling very well. The move to the new plant is all about getting out from under a Union, (moving to a right to work state) But the main consideration was to get rid of the problem people that they could not fire under the Unions Oversight, specifically so they could improve the brand.

On another point. FNH owns Winchester which is the best thing to have happened to that company product wise in many years. They shut down the plant in CN and moved it to NC? The sole purpose for doing this was to get rid of the dead wood, and to update the manufacturing processes which couldn't be done with the old workers in place. They didn't have the skills necessary to operate the new machinery. Their new rifles are way better than the stuff produced only a few years ago.

When people will not change for the better, it kills the brand.

When you have a group that will not change, then the only way left is to drop and pick up somewhere else.

It's too bad and is a sad testimony to the way alot of unions work. Not all but some.

There was a big time machine shop in Torrance CA named SpaceCraft. They lost a major Govt Contract and the owner told the union that either they would have to accept pay cuts or the place would close down. Mind you, the guy sweeping the floor was making over $25/hour, so these guys were being very well paid! Well above the going rate for the individuals skills, mainly because the owner cared about his employees, many of whom had worked there their entire lives.

The Union said FU, we won't accept any pay cuts period!

This was on a Friday.

Monday the plant was empty, all the machinery had been moved over the weekend to another location, and there was a sign on the door advertising time and place of the auction to sell all of the equipment.

The Union bosses went to the owner and asked WTF?, and the owner said FU,,,, I told you so!

I bought a bunch of stuff at that auction and several of the previous employees were there buying stuff too.(which is where I heard the story) The owner made right at $2 million on the auction and now lives in Havasu City AZ.

This is what happens when Unions don't listen and won't compromise. If you value the employee more than the company that he works for, eventually you price yourself out of a job!

This is what happened at Marlin. Nothing more. If they do any of the things we discussed at the show, they will be making some real nice guns soon.